If somebody told me when I started my studies at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in 1984 that I would be a freelance translator from German into English 20 years later, I wouldn't have believed them. However, connections with Germany were always in the family. My father was a modern languages teacher and spent a year working in Hameln at the Schiller Gymnasium. Us children went out to be there for a few months where we also went to school.  After working for a short time after obtaining my Diploma in Architecture (RIBA Part II qualification) in Glasgow, I had the opportunity to work at the German office of Stirling Wilford Architects – this exciting but also daunting because of the language barrier. My knowledge of German was limited to a few years in school, but I had visited the country a few times due to family connections.

My initial experience at the practice was working on the Music School (Musikhochschule) in Stuttgart, a dramatic addition to the Stuttgart urban landscape, construction of which was already underway next door to the office. Working under expert guidance of my German colleagues, this gave me some fascinating insights into the various stages of construction as the building progressed. My work focussed on the interior fittings and ceiling/lighting layouts. The drawings were all annotated in German so I needed to get to grips with many technical terms and use them on a daily basis at work. The next project I was assigned to was an industrial building in Hamburg for STO AG, who make insulation panels and render products used for external cladding of buildings. I worked on the detailed designs of stair elements with complex geometries and a triangular external courtyard, producing all the working drawings. The project received critical acclaim and was also published in well-known architectural journals such as “Das Bauzentrum” and “Bauwelt”. The company is now known as Wilford/Schupp Architects.

My decision to work as a freelance architect for a range of firms around Stuttgart allowed me to work on many different projects and interact with many people working in the building industry. Meetings with clients and continuous dialogue with colleagues and consultants such as structural engineers and planners in relation to proposed designs gave me the opportunity to develop my understanding of the German language in general and, more specifically, familiarise myself with technical terms commonly used in the industry. Since the reunification of Germany, the economy was still booming and many clients were investigating the feasibility of building in the former East Germany as well as in Stuttgart and some of my site visits were to the city of Dresden. I worked on many housing projects, producing sketch proposals, models and perspective drawings for presentation/discussion with clients. I also prepared plans/sections and elevations for submission to the planning authorities.

The opportunity to work part-time for STAR, a well known Stuttgart-based global translation provider and translation software developer, arose when I was still working as a freelance architect. This was my introduction to what has turned out to be a lasting career in the translation industry. Initially supporting the lead translator and head of department, I performed an organisational role for a long-term multi-lingual quality management project for a well known car manufacturer based in Munich. I worked on this project exclusively and thousands and thousands of words were initially translated by the team of German-English translators. I was given the task of checking layouts and proofreading translations for basic errors. I was in a unique position to see how translation memory software and integrated dictionaries are used to ensure consistency and speed and how translations were handled in many languages simultaneously. STAR was developing and marketing its own translation memory software TRANSIT. I learnt how to translate using this software and also develop my specialist knowledge of the automotive sector. As the project developed over the six years and became increasingly complex, I was called on to develop strategies for organising workflows and managing human resources to cater for high volumes and peak periods and ensure the necessary quality of the delivered documents. The inhouse team grew in size to around 12 members and I became department manager in 2001.

With insights into and experience of the translation industry and also considerable in-house translation experience, combined with a technical/design background, I launched my career as a freelance translator in 2003.    
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